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I used to be an absolutist on “gun dispersement.” Home carry, keep a long gun in the safe room and call it good. And then Christian recommended a second safe room. In additional to my main storage area. So that’s four places [that I’m willing to talk about] where I can re-tool-up in an emergency. The more important point, I think, is that all my guns are locked up. So if a kid, workman or interloper “finds” a firearm stash, they’re not going to access a gun. Easily. Whether or not you agree with Ravens cornerback Chris Johnson’s Conan-like penchant for multiple gun locations, the fact that A) he’s just told the world where they are (2:45) and B) they’re not secured is deeply worrying. Or is it? Is my inner safety Nazi showing again?

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53 COMMENTS

  1. All long guns and most handguns kept in safe. CCW carried with me at all times, placed in bio-metric nightstand safe at night when I go to sleep. I guess I’m a safety Nazi too.

  2. No, your inner safety Nazi is not rearing its ugly head again. The World needs one less person bumping into a loaded gun that’s “hidden”. Period. I home carry because I will not allow my kid to get my gun, or one of their little buddies find my gun. It is always on me because it is always safest there.

    • +1. This is how I do it as well. No muss, no fuss, and it’s (literally) on hand if you need it, regardless of your location.

    • So you are saying that the glock is in the top left kitchen drawer, and the 1911 is in the magazine rack attached to the recliner, eh?

      • No. That’s silly. The 1911 is in the magazine rack next to the toilet. Duh. That’s where I’ll be most defenseless. Sitting duck and all that.

  3. I used to be a stasher but then after ten hot burglaries in two weeks in my neighborhood I started home carrying. Upon further review of my previous practice I realized how stupid that was. It really isn’t a bright idea to leave loaded guns around the house. Even with multiple locations you could end up with the BG between you and your closest piece.

    Home carry is the only way to go.

  4. With the affordable options available for quick access pistol safes and one gun rifle safes I think a person can easily stash safely.

  5. That’s pretty poor accuracy for a 20 feet target. He needs to practice the fundamentals. His handgun stance is terrible.

    • Same here. Plus I home carry. If friends with children are coming over I lock them up. All my close friends (the only ones who visit) know I have guns around the home, so they either call ahead or keep tight reign on the kids in the rare instance of a “surprise” visit. (has only happened once in 10 years).

      • Double ditto. Kids (adults) live out of state, no grandkids. Home carry or right at hand and a few others stashed here and there. Plus four loud dogs. I can’t imagine being taken by surprise.

    • As did I. But back then almost everyone I knew had one of those china-cabinet-like gun display cabinets, and few even had locks. It didn’t matter. We grew up in ranching country where you grew up with gun safety, and safety began with your brain, not a lock. I always knew where my parent’s loaded guns were, and never once went near it. We were taught enough fear of the gun and fear of the Lord to know better.

      That said, it’s all too apparent that the world I grew up in, and children who had the wherewithal to know and yet not mess with them is long gone.

      As to sharing where mine may or may not be…what, did Mayor Bloomberg put you up this question? To quote the Elder Pres. Bush, “Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

  6. I with RF on this. I have guns in 6 locations in my house, two in my out-buildings, and two at work. Every one of them is in a safe and bolted to something that is going nowhere quickly. I wish GunVault/Cannon were a publicly traded company…

    • You do realize that a thief with a crowbar or wrecking bar could open your GunVaults in just a few seconds. The Cannons would probably require just a few minutes.

    • You do realize that a thief with a crowbar or wrecking bar could open your GunVaults in just a few seconds. The Cannons would probably require just a few minutes.
      Your safes are only stopping the innocents, and the criminally inept.

      • I have a Cannon and for the money, it’s a fantastic safe.

        Sure it’s not a mosler money safe, but it keeps the guns away from the kids and from joe crackhead burglar.

        Yes, it is a “residential security container”, but it has internal hinges, 4″ bolts all the way around the door, and is bolted to a concrete floor.

        Most safes are attacked with prybars in the “laying down” position. All the “test” videos you see on youtube show a locked safe that gets tipped over before the pry attack starts.

        I want to see these same safes tested first by showing the bolts have not been tampered with and second, attacking the safe while it is bolted to a floor.

        It’s pretty hard to get lots of leverage while standing up.

        -ted

  7. It amazing where you can hide pistols with super powerful rare earth magnets. Lets just say my vehicles are armed but the pistols arent inside the vehicle. That being said always disarm your vehicle before you bring it in for any servicing and also wrap it in a ziplock bag with grease. Magnets…..science rocks!

    • Any piece of “lock it up” security can be defeated, given enough time and/or talent. Even the best safe can be defeated, if the thief is willing to spend the necessary time to get it open, or to carry the heavy thing to someplace where he has all the time he needs. A great thief with safe-cracking skills may be able to open a great safe in a matter of a few minutes or even seconds.

      However, you can’t steal what you can’t find.

  8. I home carry.

    I keep a number of cap and ball revolvers stashed around the house, loaded and ready to go. My modern guns stay locked up in safe unless I am shooting or carrying them.

    Reason for using the cap and ball revolvers loaded and ready to go… if house is burglarized and they are stolen, the criminal will most likely not be able to use then after six shots are fired. Also… if burglar uses them in another crime, they can not be traced back to me. Saves me the head ache.

    • Pocano: I guess another advantage to the cap and ball revolvers would be the concealment provided by the massive smoke cloud, allowing you to retreat to your safe room and gear up with a now modern weapon! :p

  9. Well yes and now. Not because I like stashing my guns around the house so much as I can’t afford a safe to put them all into!

  10. Another question might be: if you stash, do you separate firearm and ammo?
    I got in the habit of only keeping whatever I’m carrying loaded. If/when I
    stash in a hideaway, closet etc I remove the ammo/mag and store it in a
    separate hidden compartment within reach.

  11. I have actually built up small stashes of gear at friends and families’ homes- having your house armed up like a fortress makes you sleep good and all, but what happens if you’ve got no choice but to bail? You never realize just how little “as much as you can carry” actually becomes.
    My go-to rifle uses a common caliber but proprietary mags, so I make sure to have a couple in a cheap, non-tacticool backpack, along with some basic tools, medical gear, clothes and batteries.
    Done right, before the craziness started, I was up to 3 such bags kitted out under $100. Now…if I want to add a 4th, it’ll be more like $100 a bag. I’d like to get some pistol mags for my carry worked in there too.

  12. I carry 16/7.
    The other 8 I’m sleeping with it within arms reach.
    I have sent some mags and speedstrips through the washer though….

  13. Born in 1944, raised on a farm…lots of long guns in the pantry, no pistols. These were never loaded, all hell would break loose if a loaded gun was brought into the house! The guns were used mainly for hunting, no one ever dreamed of “home invasions” . After milking the cows we sometimes would take several rifles out and shoot woodchucks or just plink at cans. I remember that a box of .22’s cost $.59. When I had kids I always kept my long guns in a gun cabinet, told the kids they were loaded (they weren’t) and never, ever touch them unless I said it was ok…worked for me. Today it’s just the wife and I, we still have several long guns in a cabinet but both of us now have CHL’s in Texas and both carry. Got to tell you young folks…it was a lot better place back then!

  14. I need to figure out a solution for all the time I spend outside in my new hottub. Other than that, I’m “set”

  15. Stashing guns around your home depends on multiple factors. To boil it down, if you have a mansion with multiple floors and multiple wings, then I would recommend stashing long guns on each floor of each wing. If you have a smaller home, one long gun centrally located is enough. If you have something in between, I would recommend something in between.

    If you keep your doors locked, you should know about a home invasion with enough time to get to your long gun wherever it may be. And if you carry a handgun on your hip in your home, you should always be able to buy enough time to get to your stashed long gun.

    As for safe storage, that depends on each situation. If there is effectively zero chance of ever having guests that would be irresponsible, then leave them locked and loaded. If infants and toddlers are the only possible visitors, a long gun with a full magazine and nothing in the chamber is safe. (Infants and toddlers cannot cycle the action of long guns.) If you have guests or family members who are capable of cycling the action of long guns or who might harm someone with your long guns (whether accidentally or intentionally), then keep a trigger lock on them and keep the keys on yourself at all times.

  16. I’m not arguing for or against what I’m about to say. Just saying…

    There are two ways to keep something secure:
    1. Put it in a safe or some other way to “lock it up” so that the average thief can’t move it from where you put it. The thought is that the thief probably will find it (or what it is locked inside), but he will not take the time to defeat your “locks”, and he won’t just steal the heavy safe.
    2. Hide it so well that the average thief can’t find it. The thought is, “If you find it you can have it, but I’ll bet you don’t have the time to look hard enough to find it.” One advantage of this method is that I know where to find it, and I don’t have to waste time opening a lock when I need to get to it quickly. The disadvantage is that you may have to remove them from their hiding places and secure them somewhere else, before allowing children into the room/house.

    Both are effective means of securing things. It would appear that Ravens cornerback Chris Johnson may be attempting the second strategy. (Rather poorly, especially because he just told everyone where they are hidden!)

  17. i don’t use or carry a gun in daily life. never had a need or desire to do so. I own them to add to the power of the citizenry, and i shoot them for fun. home invasions are so far off my mental radar it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle.

  18. keep all of mine safe and secure, either on my person or locked up. now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go “stunt” up and down the streets of my neighborhood. I’ve always wanted to visit the pokey.

  19. Since I don’t have any children or adolescents in my house, I don’t worry about this too much. Everyone in my house knows and practices gun safety.

    And that’s all I have to say about that.

  20. Disclaimer: This is not how I stash any of my belongings. Also, I don’t own any belongings.

    If you get really imaginative, you can homebrew some pretty good stash spots around that house. They may not always stop the most determined thief, but will certainly reduce the chances of your stuff being found (by a thief).

    For instance:
    -A waterproof container in a toilet tank. Some might even look like part of the tank’s mechanism.
    -An electrical outlet that’s actually a hidden compartment. I hear that a 4 plug outlet will cover a hole/box big enough for a full sized vintage item from 1911 (or even a 6 pulgger for a something that’s like the size of a couple of golf clubs, if you’re feeling ambitious and have deep walls).
    A person who’s even moderately handy could, I imagine, have an old-style cell phone charging cord (minus the cell phone) permanently affixed* to the outlet such that it looks plugged in, but in reality will pull the cover right off with a good yank.
    *Since it’s just the wall plate, not an actual outlet, it would probably be as simple as “plugging” the cord in and running a long machine screw through the prongs, anchoring it in place, I guess. No burglar is going to bother trying to steal one of these: http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.dicksondata.com/product_image-images/asjpg/r157-99.jpg

    -It has also been rumored that an old, tube type TV set with a cracked screen in a storage area/basement is unlikely to draw any thief’s attention. These can be carefully opened up, gutted and ‘things’ can be stashed in them. Zip-tying** some weights (or even a bag of rocks) in there before resealing the back will make the TV extra heavy and therefore even less attractive to the would be robber.
    **So that they don’t move around if the TV is shifted/lifted. That kind of sound/internal movement might make the burglar want to look inside.

    Etc…

    • Paranoid much?…. Yeah, me too…lol.

      You can always re-drywall between 2 studs. That gives you a 16″x3.5/8″x7 foot “enclosure” that will never be accidentally discovered nor would anyone find it if looking. Make it a wall between rooms and you have access from either side IF you remember exactly where it is. A good thin coat of grease on a pump 12ga. and it’ll be there if you ever need it.

      Do NOT forget it if you move!

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